Frelinghuysen: Trump should cut Medicare, Medicaid

Posted by Sussex County Democratic Committee33sc on March 16, 2017

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, a Republican whose district includes five Sussex County municipalities—Byram, Hopatcong, Ogdensburg, Sparta and Stanhope—is concerned about the budget Trump is proposing. For progressives in the 11th district who have been concerned about the congressman’s steady drift to the absolute right, this might seem like good news. But there’s a catch ...

Frelinghuysen wants to pay for Trump’s military build-up not by maintaining taxes on the top 1 percent and their corporations, but by gutting “entitlement” programs that keep the most vulnerable somewhat afloat: Medicare and Medicaid.

As chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Frelinghuysen wields a great deal of power over how the U.S. government spends its money. And healthcare for the poor and elderly is not where he thinks it should go.

"I'd like my other congressional colleagues to take a look at all those entitlement programs.” “Entitlement” is an accounting term that describes expenses that are nondiscretionary, i.e., that must be paid. In the past decade or so the right has twisted the meaning to imply that beneficiaries of these programs believe they are “entitled” regardless of their circumstances, feeding on a perception that needing government assistance is a choice (usually over working).

In Sussex County, the 2010 census counted 12 percent of the population as age 65 or over, the group that relies on Medicare for the bulk of its health insurance. are enrolled in Medicare, receiving an average reimbursement of around $9,600 annually.